Deauthorize your computer using iTunes

Make sure that you deauthorize your Mac or PC before you sell it, give it away, send it in for service, or make major hardware upgrades.

When you deauthorize a computer, you remove its access to certain content that you bought from the iTunes Store, iBooks Store, or App Store, such as music, movies, TV shows, apps, and books. You won’t lose your content, and nothing will be deleted from the computer. When you deauthorize a computer, you only prevent it from accessing protected content. You can authorize your computer again later.

In the Apple ID Summary section, next to Computer Authorizations, you'll see the number of computers that you've authorized. You won't see the names of those computers.

Deauthorize one computer

Open iTunes on the computer you want to deauthorize.

From the menu bar at the top of your computer screen or at the top of the iTunes window, choose Account > Authorizations > Deauthorize This Computer.

When prompted, enter your Apple ID and password.

Click Deauthorize.

Windows users

If you didn’t deauthorize your computer before you re-installed Windows or upgraded your RAM, hard disk, or other system components, your computer might be using multiple authorizations. Try to deauthorize your computer a few times until it’s no longer authorized, then authorize your computer again. After you do this, it will use only one authorization.

Deauthorize all computers

If you need to deauthorize your computer but you can't access it, you need to deauthorize all computers. This option is available after you authorize 2 computers using your Apple ID. You can deauthorize all computers once per year.

You should deauthorize all computers if:

Your computer doesn't work anymore.

You sold or gave away a computer and didn't deauthorize it first.

To deauthorize all computers:

To automatically open iTunes and sign in to your Account Information page from your computer, click this link: View My Account. Or follow these steps:

Scroll to the Apple ID Summary section. To the right of Computer Authorizations, click Deauthorize All.

The Deauthorize All button appears only if you have more than 2 authorized computers. If you don't see the Deauthorize All button, that means that you only have one authorized computer.

When you deauthorize all, you don't lose content

When you deauthorize a single computer, you don't lose content. The same applies to if you choose to deauthorize all computers. You just won't be able to access the content that you bought from iTunes on those computers until you reauthorize them. You need to have the computer to reauthorize it.

After you deauthorize

From the menu bar at the top of your computer screen or at the top of the iTunes window, choose Account > Authorizations > Authorize This Computer.

Enter your Apple ID and password.

Click Authorize.

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